Once
upon a time, a handsome and arrogant young prince ventured into an Enchanted
Forest in search of a fabled palace full of gold and riches.While
traveling with his court “Fool,” he is observed by several forest spirits,
who find him to be surly and rude.They
decide the Prince should be punished for his behavior and cast a spell
that transforms him into a hideous beast to suit his manners.To
teach him a lesson, the spirits decree that the spell shall not be broken
and he shall remain frozen in time in the Enchanted Palace until the cruel
Prince’s heart is softened enough to win the love and marriage of a maiden.

Many
years pass, and the heart of the Beast has indeed softened somewhat when
a business man finds himself lost in the forest and is guided by the spirits
to the Enchanted Palace.He stops
to pick a rose to take home to his daughter, Beauty, but is discovered
by the Beast who becomes angry and threatens to kill him.The
Beast decides to spare the man’s life, but requests that he return home
and send Beauty back to the Enchanted Palace.The
man refuses to endanger his daughter, but against her Father’s will, she
goes to meet the Beast to save her Father’s life.

Beauty
is brave and demands courtesy and kindness from the Beast, who finds even
more success in taming his temper with Beauty’s help.It
isn’t until the Beast releases Beauty to go care for her now ailing Father
that she realizes she does truly love the Beast.She
returns to the Palace just in time to profess her love, accept his marriage
proposal, and break the beastly spell.In
a magical moment, the Beast is returned to his Princely appearance and
explains to Beauty the transformation and the spirit’s curse.The
Prince, Beauty, her Father and sisters, and the “Fool” are now free to
dance and rejoice in their good fortune!

Before
the Play

ØRead
an original version of the fairytale.The
earliest truly similar version to the one we know today was written by
Madame Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont in 1756.Talk
about how this is different from the Disney movie version (to help students
know what to expect).

General
Use

I.Central
Issues

ØWhy
did the spirits want to punish the Prince by turning him into a beast?What
were they trying to teach him?

ØHow
is Beauty different from her sisters, Faith and Hope?

ØWhy
do Beauty’s sisters dislike the beast and not want her to go back to him?

ØWhat
does the Beast learn about friendship?Describe
what you think a friend should be like.

II.Art

ØDraw
a picture of Beauty’s family, including Beauty, Faith, Hope, and their
Father.

ØImagine
what the Enchanted Palace looks like.Draw
or paint a picture of it, and make roses out of tissue paper to glue to
the drawing.

ØUsing
aluminum foil, pipe cleaners, or other material available, have children
make their own version of the “magic ring” the Beast gave Beauty’s father.

ØPre-cut
or have students cut out the shape of a hand-mirror from cardboard.Cut
pieces of aluminum foil to fit on the inside and tape the edges on the
dull-side of the foil to the cardboard on one side.Now
the other side is a mirror.Students
can also color the cardboard “frame” or glue glitter or pipe cleaners to
decorate it.

ØDraw
the scenes where the Fool interacts with each of the three spirits.

·Grades
2+
can write captions describing what was going on.

ØCargo
is a word for the goods or merchandise conveyed in a ship, airplane, or
vehicle.What kind of cargo do you
imagine Beauty’s father was shipping?Draw
a picture of the ship and its cargo.

ØOn
the maze below, help get Beauty’s Father’s ship safely through the storm
to land in Amsterdam.Then help get
him safely back to his daughters at home.

III.Language

ØWhat
is the definition of a Fool? What do they mean in this play by “Fool?”What
did a fool do in that time period?

ØWhen
we meet Beauty and her family, they are taking turns telling riddles.A
riddle is a mystifying, misleading, or puzzling question posed as a problem
to be solved or guessed.

·Younger
children
can answer simple riddles posed to the group (i.e. Who has brown hair and
is wearing a red shirt today?) or play riddlee-riddlee-ree (I see something
you don’t see, and the color is...).

·Older
children
can choose from a book of riddles or write riddles for the class to answer.

IV.Introduction
to Literature

ØDiscuss
story-telling.The earliest collection
of the tale dates back to Italy in the mid 1500s.The
earliest French version is an ancient Basque tale that was later popularized
by Charles Perrault in 1697.Re-read
1756 version of Beauty and the Beast.Why
would there have been so many variations on a story? What might happen
to a story when it gets translated from one language to another? What about
before before stories were printed into books?

ØPlay
“Telephone” to demonstrate what happens to information overtime as it is
handed from one person or generation to the next.

·For
younger
children, start with a simple sentence.

·Older
students
can try passing around a very simple fairytale (Once upon a time, there
was a woman who went to the store to buy an apple.).

Give
the statement only to the first student, and have them whisper it
to the student next to them, who should in turn whisper it to the student
next to them, until it has been passed around the room.Tell
the students that the goal is to have the last student hear the same statement
you started with (to try to control for students who might purposefully
change the information as they pass it along).Have
the last student repeat what they heard out loud to the class.

ØMake
a book telling the story of Beauty and the Beast using pictures.

For
K-2,
use the following list of scenes to guide the students through, picture
by picture, then you can staple the picture together into a book.Grades
3+ can write captions or narration to accompany the pictures.

1.Enchanted
forest, Prince, Fool, Spirits

2.Beauty,
Faith, Hope, and Father at home

3.Enchanted
Palace, Beast, Fool, Father, roses

4.Father
comes home with bad news

5.Beauty
arrives at the Palace

6.Beauty
sees sick father in magic mirror, asks to go home

7.Beauty
at home w/family, sees dying Beast in mirror

8.Beauty
returns to the Beast, professes love, spell is broken

ØInternet
Research:Have
students do an internet search for some examples of Victorian Era Poets
(Anne, Charlotte, or Emily Bronte, Robert Browning, Thomas Hardy, Dante
Gabriel Rosetti, Robert Louis Stevenson).

·Older
children
can choose a poem and practice to read it aloud.

ØCharles
Dickens is another Victorian author.Read
or watch A Christmas Carol.How
are these two pieces similar and different?How
does Beauty’s family compare to the families portrayed in Dickens’ story?

V.History

ØThis
play takes place during the Victorian Era.Why
is this period called “Victorian?”

ØResearch
the styles of the Victorian Era.What
style of clothing and decoration were they using?Write
a description with photos or drawings of Victorian Style.

ØFind
out about what developments occurred in gardening in Victorian England.

ØResearch
the role of women in the Victorian Era - What things were changing?What
laws or acts were passed?

VI.Culture/Geography

ØBeauty’s
Father went to recover goods lost on ships from Amsterdam.In
what country would you find Amsterdam?Locate
the city and country on a map.

ØWhat
distinctive features does the city of Amsterdam have?

ØWhat
language(s) do they speak?

ØMusic:Play
some music from the Victorian Era in the background while students work
on study guide activities.Examples:Richard
Strauss, Gilbert and Sullivan.

·K-2
can use this as a stretch break and dance as the Fool did to entertain
Beauty and as they all did to celebrate the happy ending.

VII.Science

ØRoses
were very important to both Beauty and the Beast in this story.Learn
how to grow roses.What conditions
do roses prefer to grow in (soil, sunlight, water, temperature)?If
conditions and supplies allow, grow a rose bush as a class project.

VIII.Performance

ØThe
spirits thought the Prince was nasty so they turned him into a beast.How
would he have acted if the spirits had turned him into something else (a
frog, bear, snake, rock)?Give students
an example and have them act it out.

IX.Creative
Writing

ØA
journal or diary is often a daily record of personal activities, reflections,
feelings, events, and/or observations.If
Beauty or the Beast kept a journal, what do you think they might have written?Write
journal entries for either Beauty or The Beast.

·For
Beauty, what might she have been writing while her father was away? After
she arrived at the Enchanted Palace and met the Beast? Back home caring
for her father when he was ill?

·For
the Beast, consider journal entries for the Prince before he was turned
into a beast, the day the spirits turned him into a beast, when Beauty’s
father arrives and then leaves with the ring, the day Beauty arrives, and
the day Beauty leaves to tend to her father.

ØHave
children work in groups of 3-5 to come up with an alternate ending for
the play.For example:

·What
if the Beast had not allowed Beauty to return to care for her sick Father?Would
she have tried to escape?Would she
still have fallen in love with him?

·What
if Beauty’s Father had not been allowed to return home, but was allowed
to write a letter to his daughters explaining where he was.Would
Beauty have gone out to find him?Would
she have gone alone? What if her sisters accompanied her and they all ended
up at the Enchanted Palace?

·What
might have happened if Faith or Hope had found the “magic ring” when her
Father set it down and been transported to the Enchanted Palace instead
of Beauty?

Grades
3+
can write their endings and/or act them out for the class.

X.Additional
- Write to CTC

ØAfter
watching the play, write about it.Tell
what you liked or disliked about the story, the characters, costumes, or
set.support you thoughts with examples
and reasons.Mail to:P.O.Box
2007, Sunnyvale, CA94087.Teacher’s
comments are appreciated!